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Grocery near Downtown will close

Downtown lacks a full-service grocery, and the one closest to the south side of Downtown will close at the end of May, its new owners say.

Bob Kowalski, marketing vice president of Woodbury-based Kowalski Companies, said the former GJ's Super Valu grocery at 1816 Nicollet Ave. will close when the lease expires.

Kowalski's purchased five Minneapolis Super Valus last year; the Nicollet store is the only one being shuttered.

Kowalski said that three factors contributed to the store's demise: the short time remaining on the lease, poor equipment that would be expensive to upgrade, and a bad layout in which the store did not face the street.

Kowalski said the company remains interested in the location. "The landlord has extensive plans to raze the sit and start all over," he said. "We told him, 'show us what you have.' We'll be happy to revisit [putting in a new store in the location] in a couple of years."

In recent years, city officials have talked of luring a grocer closer to the Downtown core; last year, developer Opus Corp. presented concepts to the Minneapolis Community Development Agency for a Lunds grocery on a half-block site somewhere between 10th Street South and 12th Street South. However, no commitments have been made.